Bouts of blue in the festive season

MUMBAI: While one chunk of the planet soars to the stratosphere at high-octane parties in the Christmas-New Year season, it is the blues that stain the souls of others. And the relentlessly cheerful Santa Claus is a Most Wanted lister who would be clobbered if he came within a yard of them.
Some of the compulsive Page 3 People might well leap off the 22nd floor if they are not invited to the most happening parties in town.Or they’d gatecrash these Great Gatsbian convulsions with a singed smile and a fragile heart.
Because they wouldn’t be able to handle the dreaded SMS the morning after: wot ver u doin on nu yrs eve? The unspeakable humiliation of spending it with the family watching telly fills them with self-loathing.
Not realising that it may be a considerably savvier option to the party warriors who spend New Year’s Eve hors de combat, stuck in a traffic jam or the elevator.
The festive blues strike at the heart of not just P3P but mere mortals as well. Says an assistant director, requesting anonymity, at the Samaritans suicide prevention helpline, “The calls we receive peak to an average of 12 calls a day during any festive season, including Christmas, as loneliness hits people. Usually it is caused by peer pressure at not being invited to parties or not having enough money, or it’s examination pressure.Most of our callers are in the 16 to 35 age group.’’
Yet there are many who cherish quiet moments at home with the family. Says model Marc Robinson, “I go to parties every day of my life, so at Christmas-New Year, they’re a no-no. In Bombay, it’s always the same set you see all year. It’s Gautam Singhania’s party tonight (where you can’t gatecrash, he has numbered invitations), Alyque Padamsee’s on Christmas Eve, and so on.
And it’s no fun going to a midnight mass that winds up at 8 p.m. or 10.30 p.m. because of the noise rules. So for me, Christmas is a very family thing. I go to church, and it’s fun decorating the house. This year, though, I’m taking my wife Waluscha and daughter Chanel to New York so they can enjoy the snow and the music in the streets that we see in the movies.’’